Texas Bird Identification

Birds of Texas

Texas is home to the most fascinating birds in the world. With its diverse landscapes, from the Gulf Coast to the mountains in the west, Texas offers a bird-watching experience like no other. From the majestic bald eagle to the elusive painted bunting, there are countless species to explore.

Birdwatching in Texas

With its location on the central migration flyway and over  268,000 square miles of diverse habitats that include coastal islands and estuaries, plains, prairies, deserts, plateaus, subtropical zones, and more, Texas is a birder’s dream destination. More than 600 bird species have been recorded in Texas, making it an ideal location for compiling a life list. However, with so many birds and birding hotspots to choose from, planning a birding trip to Texas can be daunting.

The state’s location on the Central Flyway migration route also means that millions of birds pass through Texas each year, making it an ideal destination for birdwatchers. Not only that, but Texas also has many designated birding trails and hotspots, making it easy to plan your birdwatching adventure. So pack your binoculars, grab your field guide, and get ready to explore the incredible world of birdwatching in Texas.

Bird identification is part of the joy of birding, but it isn’t always easy. From telling Mottled Ducks apart from American Black Ducks apart to figuring out what type of Tern you just saw at beach, bird identification can definitely be tough.

Top 5 Birdwatching Spots in Texas

Texas is a birdwatcher’s paradise, offering a wide variety of habitats and diverse bird species. From wetlands to mountains, forests to grasslands, there are numerous locations to go birdwatching in Texas. Here are some of the best places to spot fascinating birds in Texas:

1. Big Bend National Park: Located in southwestern Texas, this park is a perfect spot for birdwatching. It boasts more than 450 bird species, including the Colima Warbler, Black-chinned Sparrow, and Lucifer Hummingbird.
2. Padre Island National Seashore: This long stretch of beach is home to more than 380 bird species, including the Piping Plover, Wilson’s Plover, and Snowy Plover.
3. Brazos Bend State Park: This park is located just 45 minutes from Houston and offers abundant birdwatching opportunities with more than 300 bird species. Visitors can spot the American Bittern, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, and Roseate Spoonbill.
4. South Padre Island: This beautiful island located on the southernmost tip of Texas is a great spot for birdwatching. The island is home to more than 300 bird species, including the Reddish Egret, Black Skimmer, and Great Kiskadee.
5. Davis Mountains State Park: This park is located in the Chihuahuan Desert and is home to more than 200 bird species, including the Montezuma Quail, Black-throated Sparrow, and Scott’s Oriole.

Most common birds found in Texas

Texas is home to a wide variety of birds, but some are more common than others. If you’re interested in birdwatching in Texas, it’s important to know which birds you’re most likely to spot. Here are some of the most common birds found in Texas:

• Northern Cardinal: This bird is known for its bright red plumage and distinctive crest. It’s found throughout Texas and is a year-round resident.
• American Goldfinch: The American Goldfinch is a small, brightly colored bird that’s found throughout Texas. It’s most commonly seen during the winter months.
• Mourning Dove: The Mourning Dove is a common sight in Texas, particularly in urban areas. It’s a year-round resident and is known for its distinctive cooing call.
• Great-tailed Grackle: This large, blackbird is a common sight in Texas, particularly in urban areas. It’s known for its distinctive call and can be found year-round.
• Red-winged Blackbird: The Red-winged Blackbird is a common sight in Texas during the winter months. It’s known for its distinctive red and yellow markings and can often be seen in flocks.
• Northern Mockingbird: The Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas and is a year-round resident. It’s known for its distinctive song and can be found throughout the state.

Birds to Watch in Texas

Knowing the birds to watch for in Texas can help birders decide where to go to enjoy the best of Texas birding, whether they are interested in common Texas birds, regional specialties, or the most unusual of the state’s feathered residents.

The colorful Painted Bunting

The Painted Bunting is one of the most colorful birds you can spot in Texas. The males are a vibrant mix of blue, green, and red, while the females have a more subdued green color with yellowish underparts. They are a sight to behold and are often referred to as the “nonpareil,” which means “unrivaled” in French.

These birds are known for their unique feeding habits, as they primarily feed on seeds and insects found in tall grasses and shrubs. During the breeding season, the male Painted Bunting puts on an elaborate courtship display to attract a mate. This display includes fluffing up its feathers and singing a beautiful song while hopping around on a branch.

The Painted Bunting is a migratory bird and can be found in Texas from April to September. They prefer to live in dense shrubs and thickets in open woodlands, making them a bit more difficult to spot. However, with their stunning colors, they are definitely worth the effort to search for. If you are lucky enough to spot one, take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this unique and colorful bird.

The majestic Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a majestic bird of prey that can be found in Texas. Known as the national bird of the United States, the Bald Eagle is an iconic symbol of strength and freedom. With a wingspan that can reach up to 7 feet, the Bald Eagle is easily recognizable with its white head and tail feathers contrasting against its dark brown body.

In Texas, the Bald Eagle can be spotted near large bodies of water, such as lakes and coastlines. They are known to build their nests in tall trees near the water where they can catch fish and other prey for their young.

The Bald Eagle is a protected species in the United States due to its endangered status. However, it has made a remarkable comeback in recent years thanks to conservation efforts. Spotting a Bald Eagle in Texas is a rare treat and a testament to the success of these conservation efforts. If you’re lucky enough to see one, take the time to appreciate its beauty and power in the wild.

The fascinating Roadrunner

The Roadrunner is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating birds you can spot in Texas. This bird is known for its unique appearance, with a crest of feathers on its head and a long tail that it often holds upright. Roadrunners can grow up to two feet in length and can weigh between seven to eight ounces, making them medium-sized birds.

Roadrunners prefer to live in arid and semi-arid regions, and Texas is an ideal habitat for them. These birds are known for their iconic and distinctive calls that sound like a “coo-coo-coo.” They are also known for their incredible speed, which can reach up to 20 miles per hour. These birds are ground-dwellers, and they prefer to run rather than fly, which is why they are often seen darting across roads.

Roadrunners are fascinating to watch in the wild, and visitors to Texas are often captivated by their behavior. They are known for their unique hunting style, which involves sneaking up on their prey and then pouncing on them with their strong beaks. They are opportunistic feeders, and their diet consists of insects, snakes, lizards, small mammals, and even other birds.

The migrating Whooping Crane

The Whooping Crane is an iconic bird that migrates through Texas every year. With only around 800 of these birds left in the world, it’s a rare sight that many bird watchers dream of seeing. These birds are easy to spot due to their size, standing at over five feet tall, with a wingspan of up to seven feet. They are known for their bright white feathers, with black wingtips and a red patch on their heads.

During their migration, the Whooping Cranes stop in Texas to rest and feed on their journey from Canada to their wintering grounds in Mexico. The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast is the best place to spot these majestic birds.

The best time to see the Whooping Cranes in Texas is from late October to early April. During this time, you can take a guided tour to see them up close or watch them from observation decks at the refuge.

Seeing a Whooping Crane in flight is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are a symbol of hope for conservationists and bird lovers alike, and their annual migration through Texas is a natural wonder that should not be missed.

Identifying Sparrows

Bird identification when it comes to Sparrows can be hard. The Sparrows category is quite large. One species of Sparrow can have four, five, or six, or even more different plumages and subspecies. Here are the basics:

First of all, a Sparrow will be more brown overall and will have various amounts of streaks and/or spots all over its body.

The bill size will vary a little bit but you can differentiate Sparrow bills from Warbler bills easily! Warblers will have usually shorter, but much slimmer and more sharp bills. Sparrows will have a short and stubby bill, usually a good size, starting thick at the base, and tapering down at a rapid pace to a sharp point at the end.

One more thing to use for recognizing Sparrows in the field is the tail length. Generally, a Sparrow is going to have a longer tail than most other birds their size.

Sparrows can be tricky in the field. Some are very distinctive and some are discreet, while some look like very similar to each other.

Identifying Thrushes

Telling some Thrushes apart is one of the hardest things to do in bird identification. Thrushes are a very unique group of birds, but telling some Thrushes apart from each other can be tough.

Thrushes belong to the family Turdidae which includes other birds such as the Eastern Bluebird and Townsend’s Solitaire. Thrush List:

• Bicknell’s Thrush: The Bicknell’s Thrush is very similar to the Gray-cheeked Thrush.  The best way to tell these two thrushes apart in the field is by their differing songs.
• Wood Thrush: The most brightly colored Thrush besides the Varied, the Wood Thrush has the thickest bill among Thrushes and has dark spotting on the breast that continues down the flanks
• Hermit Thrush: A reddish tail makes it easy to tell this Thrush apart from the others.
• Gray-cheeked Thrush: Of all Thrushes, the Gray-cheeked goes the farthest north.  No eye-ring and overall dully colored.
• Swainson’s Thrush: An obvious eye-ring and buffy face set the Swainson’s Thrush apart from others.
• Varied Thrush: The most unique thrush, the Varied Thrush has orange and navy blue coloring.

Warblers

Warblers are an interesting group of birds and are fun in terms of bird identification. There are several main things that you can use to recognize a Warbler while in the field.

One thing is too look at size. A warbler will usually be the same size as a Titmouse, and slightly bigger than a Chickadee. Size comparison is a vital tool to use for birding.

A second thing to notice is behavior of the bird. Warblers are typically extremely energetic. They move from one leaf to another foraging for insects or berries in a very hyper-active style. Warblers are notorious for giving birders the slip since they move so fast.

One more tool to use to recognize Warblers is color. On average, Warblers are very bright and colorful. Usually showing a lot of yellow, green, and blue. Even in fall plumage, many warblers still show lots of color.

These simple things will help you to pick out a Warbler from all the other birds while in the field!

Finding The Golden-Cheeked Warbler In Texas

Identifying Raptors

Raptors is another name for “birds of prey.” Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, and others; are undoubtedly a unique group of birds and a very excited subject to study, photograph, or draw.

You can find Raptors in many places; it depends on the habitat preferences of the species. Red-shouldered Hawks like deciduous forests, Rough-legged Hawks prefer to hunt in exposed Corn fields, and Ospreys hunt primarily from Oceans, Lakes, and large Ponds.

Raptor Families

Raptors are divided into five families:

1. Accipitridae: Hawks, Eagles, Buzzards, Harriers, Kites, and Old World Vultures.
2. Pandionidae: Osprey.
3. Sagittariidae: The Secretary Bird.
4. Falconidae: Falcons and Caracaras
5. Cathartidae: New World Vultures, and Condors.

Identifying Raptors in the field can range from easy, to medium, to extremely difficult. Raptors go through many phases of plumage. There are dark-morphs, light-morphs, complete white-morphs (leucism) and many other odd plumages.

However, the basics of recognizing a Raptor in the field are:

• Size: Most Raptors will be one of the biggest birds in the area. Some are much smaller like Falcons.
• Shape: Each genus of Raptor can have a unique shape. Birds in the genus “Buteo” have a certain shape. The most common Buteo in the U.S. is the Red-tailed Hawk.
• Calls: Raptors don’t call as often as other birds, but when they do, it is easily recognizable from any other sound in the area.

Sandpipers and Plovers

The majority of Sandpipers and Plovers can be hard to identify especially at a distance, but there are few species like this Ruddy Turnstone that really stand out in a crowd.

We have decided to break the shorebirds up into two parts since the group of Charadriiformes includes over 350 species.

Sandpipers and Plovers make up a large portion of birds seen at the beach as well as lakes and ponds. They both have long legs in comparison to their body so they can forage in sand and water without getting their body dirty.

Some shorebirds like this Sanderling are very tiny, while others like American Oystercatchers are much bigger and taller.

A bird’s bill and leg length are made according to their diet. Oystercatchers need a bigger and more hefty bill than others because of their diet, while a Sanderling only requires a small bill and shorter legs.

You can find large flocks of Sandpipers and Plovers hanging out with Gulls and Terns that roost on the beach. Some types of Sandpipers and Plovers will stick together like Semipalmated Plovers, while others with less numbers in their group might spread out and forage on their own.

Plovers typically have a thicker bill than Sandpipers, but they are also more distinctive.

Plovers like this Black-bellied Plover are especially easy to identify when they are in breeding plumage.

Gulls and Terns

Gulls and Terns are also part of the group called “shorebirds.” Although many people think about Sandpipers and Plovers when they think about shorebirds, there are over 350 species that are classified as shorebirds.

Terns have a very distinctive shape especially when flying. Terns have sharp pointed wings with a short sharp-edged tail and are equipped with bills that can catch fish easily. Folding their wings close to their body and plunging head first into the water is their typical way of foraging.

Gulls have a slightly different build and shape. Their wings are more broad and their tail not as sharp edged. They carry more heavy bills and bigger legs and feet. Gulls’ foraging technique relies somewhat on stealing food from other birds. Gulls will steal fish from Terns and any other smaller bird that they can pick on. Although Gulls do their share of honest foraging, a large portion is made up of snatching food from more skilled hunters.

Many Gulls have a black hood and black wings like the Laughing Gull pictured above. There are about 45 species of Gull in the world, are they are known as one of the hardest groups of birds to identify in the world.

Nuthatches

Nuthatches are by far one of my favorite types of birds.  The way they climb up and down trees, make their calls, and forage for food has made this group of birds a favorite for many.

There are four species of Nuthatches:

• Brown-headed
• Pygmy
• Red-breasted
• White-breasted

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is only found in the South-east of the United States, and is easily identifiable by its brown head. Also, the Brown-headed Nuthatch’s squeaky toy call is a tool to make this bird an easy ID.

Pygmy Nuthatches are the smallest birds of the Nuthatch family.  They are the Brown-headed Nuthatch are the most similar looking Nuthatches, but they are easily distinguishable from each other by Pygmy’s more grayish appearance as well as their size difference.  Also, Pygmy Nuthatch’s range does not extend or overlap with the range of the Brown-headed Nuthatch.  Pygmy Nuthatches are generally seen in the West, while Brown-headed Nuthatches are only seen in the South-east.

Red-breasted Nuthatches can be seen throughout all of the United States; however, the entire nation does not have this species year-round.  These Nuthatches can be easily identified by the stripes that they have on their heads, their red breast, and their white throats.

White-breasted Nuthatches are common throughout the United States, but have a few spots where they aren’t usually seen.  These Nuthatches have a white overall color with a black cap.  They also have bluish wings and backs.

What is the Fastest Bird in Texas?

The fastest bird in Texas (and the world) is the Peregrine Falcon, found all around the world except Antarctica.  When they are in their hunting dive, Peregrines can reach speeds of up to 240 MPH.  The 14-18 inch raptor flies at around 30 MPH but reaches fast speeds when diving.  With their extreme speed, Peregrines usually catch their prey in mid-air.

They are primarily found in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas, including Big Bend National Park and the Chisos, Davis, and Guadalupe mountain ranges.  The Peregrine Falcon nests on most climatic zones’ coasts, mountains, and canyons, wherever it can find a suitable high cliff ledge for its eyrie (nest site).

Final Word

Texas is home to over 600 species of birds. Whether you are an amateur or a professional bird watcher, it can be difficult to identify the many different types of birds in Texas. With some practice, study, and dedication you can become an expert in Texas bird identification. There are numerous resources available that can help you learn more about the various birds found in the state, such as books and websites dedicated to identifying and learning about birds.